The Local Flavor
by FloodFeSTeR
Summary: "Darlin I don't bite," she purred. "Well, unless your into that." Goggle/OC - Lizard/OC.
1. Chapter 1

_Ooooh my first Goggle fic, I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this. I know everyone's used to Goggle being sweet, but I'm adding my own twist to it. This is definetly for Shiloh Beagle, who without her help I wouldn't have ever really thought of this. Remember everyone this is a PREFACE, it' supposed to be short. Lyrics belong to Angus and Julia Stone._

**_The Local Flavor_**

The hot desert sun, buzzard cries, crow calls and the rumble of an engine.

_**Haven't felt my heart beat in fifteen years...**_

_**I haven't felt my heart beat...**_

_**Since I saw you standing there...**_

She stands straight, face contorting as she cringes into a backwards arch, facial muscles relaxing as her vertebrae give a few pops of relief that spread through her slowly. She stares down at the engine in front of her with minor agitation, wiping her forehead with the back of her gloved right hand before she bends back in to start working again. A thick strand of white hair slides past her face and she jerks her hand up to press it up behind her ear where it sticks with sweat. She hums with the radio by her feet, boot tapping at the dust as her temper rises when her wrench slips.

**_Love is not a war that I have got to fight..._**

**_When in this life..._**

**_What I can't love right..._**

**_I, I haven't got what I need from you_**

The shimmer of the lens betrays a location against the red rock canyon peak, the binpculars tapping against the rocks so they tumble down the slope he perches on. He shouldn't be doing this, she had gotten onto him for this, but he couldn't help himself, it's what he's donr his whole life. He mutters something under his breath, barely audible to his own ears, but his brain gets the message.

_**A purple skivvy remark...**_

_**You know what they are...**_

_**Memories attached to photographs...**_

She slams the hood down to the old dusty Mustang, satisfied with today's work, and she tosses her wrench and oil rag into a small bag of tools. "Hey Jeb, I'm goin home!"

No answer, but then she hears him from the back of his shit store. "Alright, get on now 'fore it gets dark."

She waves him off though he can't see her, and a soft smile graces her lips, knowing she was under a very watchful, safe gaze. Whether his concern was for her or himself at nightfall, no one could say. Sometimes she wondered if she knew what she ran with at night, maybe he was in denial. Either way, she liked to pretend the concern was for her. She snatched up her radio, not bothering to turn it off, and climbed into her antique, smiling at the purr he got when she started the engine.

_**I'm one of those girls...**_

_**Who carries on the lie...**_

_**I'm one of those people...**_

_**Who never got the facts right...**_

"I'm home!" she calls through a slighlty buzzing house, tools and radio lrft by the door.

She likes to pretend everything is normal, to the rest of the house everything is. Hair loosened from the bun at the nape of her neck, she shakes it with her long fingers, sighing her way up the stairs. She hates the heat, but it's routine now. Avoid or adapt. That's just what you do.

_**I, I haven't got what I need...**_

_**From you...**_

_**What I need, from you...**_

_**What I need...**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**I'll be glad when you dead, you rascal you...**_

Long fingers tapped against the edge of the chipped leather, foot lifted from the gas pedal as the cruise control kicked again. A cigarette balanced between the teeth, bobbing with a tongues ministration. She reached up and brushed her hair back, the white catching the sun for a moment before it was over cast with a dark cloud. Her eyes flickered up to the dark clouds, teeth worrying her bottom lip. That was all she needed, slick roads with no attention span.

Julia had no attention span, she wasn't born with one. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked over at the curving mountains to her right, taking the cigarette from her mouth as she kind of got lost in the landscape. She hadn't been out here in ten years. Her father, Jeb, owned a gas station out in this little (big) middle of nowhere, and she was staying for a few days on her way to Bakersfield, California to sell her old antique that was on the trailer she was pulling. She was a diehard mechanic and collector, but she had to sell the car. It was falling a part and she didn't have the resou4ces to get it fixed at the moment, it deserved better. These people she was selling to, the Wilkins, had all the resources and the same obsession as her.

_Perfection._

She blinked and slowly pressed on the brakes, noticing she had passed the dusty gas station. She smiled when she pulled into the gas station, seeing her father slouched in an old lawn chair, half empty of sun warmed whiskey by his feet, het laid across his chest. She opened the door, flicking away her cigarette, and got a good chuckle when he jumped. He scrambled in fear, a handgun magically appearing, and then promptly dissapearing when he saw her standing beside the truck, decked out in a grease stained red jumpsuit.

"Weren't supposed ta be here til Saturday," he grumbled, hobbling up to her.

Julia's brow scrunched in concern. "What's wrong with your ankle?"

His eyes set in worry but he just waved her off, straightening his back. "It's nothin, jus' hurt maself helpin a customer with his truck the other day. What's under the sheet?"

Julia grinned and walked over, pulling up the sheet so he could see the angel wing hood. "It's a car I got from an old man that lives around my place."

"She's a beaut, this th' one yer sellin?"

She ran her fingertips over the hood, a nostalgic smile on her lips. "Yeah, I can't keep her up anymore."

Silence passed between them for a good ten minutes before Jeb cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, ryes on the horizon. "So uh...how long ya gonna be here?"

Julia looked up, one eyebrow raised slightly. "Maybe three days, I got some things I need to tinker with on the truck firat. You got a shower in there?"

He nodded. "Only clean place in the joint. Get in there and I'll get yer bags."

She smiled and pat his shoulder. "Thanks Jeb."

He flinched as she passed, watching her back until she was in the store. Whatever happened to Dad or Pa? He grumbled and opened the drivers door, reaching for the bags. "Clarisa musta got to her."

**0000**

Julia stepped out of the tiny bathroom she would be haring with er father, sighing intk the cool desert air that filled the store, a good change from the stuffy steam of the bathroom. She tightened the towel around her slight frame as sh grabbed her cigarettes from one of her bags, stepping out of the store as she lit it. She tucked the lighter into the pack between the cigarettes and plopped down into the chair her father had been in when she had arrived, crossing her legs. She kept her cigarette clamped between her lips and reached up, braiding her hair over her left shoulder.

She looked over at the red mountains, slightly distinguished against the background of black stars. She had forgotten how beautiful it was put here at night, it almost made up for the heat during the day. She pulled her cigarette from her lips and blew the smoke up towards the stars.

"Julia?"

She looked over at the front door. "Out here."

Jeb poked his head out, eyes flickering around nervously. "Whatcha doin out here?"

She shrugged and held up her cigarette to him. "Smpking, and it's pretty damn beautiful tonight."

"Why don't ya come inside?"

She stared at him blankly. "Why don't you ckme out here?"

He grumbled. "Come on, seriously."

She waved her hand at him. "I'll be back inside when I'm done. You ot any food?"

"Not really...I'll look for something."

"Yeah why don't you go do that..." she muttered as he walked back inside.

Why was he so paranoid? Maybe he was afraid she would bet bitten by a rattlesnake or stung by a scorpion. It had almost happened once, a long time ago. She had left her back pack on the same chair she was sitting in and a rattlesnake had climbed right in. Jeb had caught it before anything happened and tossed it (literally) into the desert.

_'Name...'_

Julia jumped at the sound of the static voice, looking around with wide eyes. Her brow scrunched when he saw a hand held radio tucked behind a few tires leant up against the side of the store. She looked around for a moment and then shrugged, standing. She tucked her cigarette into the corner of her mouth and crouched down, picking up the radil.

"Hello?"

A few moments passed. _'Name...'_

She smiled a little, not bothered by the strangeness of this all. "My name's Julia, what's yours?"

Silence.

Her brow scrunched. "Hello?"

Nothing still. Julia stood and stared at the radio for a long time, the smell of beans not even registering in her head until Jeb called her name. She blinked out of her reverie and smiled, puttin out her cigarette as she jogged over to the door, radio hidden behind her back.

* * *

_I'm sorry for any misspells or grammar mistakes. I typed this up on my phone with no spell check._


	3. Chapter 3

"What the hell ya mean ya aren't leaven today?!"

Julia looked up slowly from the bowl of stale Kix, a small drop of milk sliding down her chin, and she slurped up the bite, talking around it with her chin jutted out. "I ain't finished."

Jeb glared from the open door of the gas station. "What ain't finished? Ya said everything was finished last night."

Julia wiped her chin and swallowed, setting her bowl down on the checkout counter. "There were a few things I had to check out first, I can't just go riding around with some things unfixed Dad."

Jeb hesitated when she said his name, not Jeb, but Dad. He rubbed the back of his neck and then set his jaw. "Ya can't stay another day, ya hafta go."

She glared at him. "Why? You don't want me around?"

He stuttered for a moment then waved his hands. "N-No, Jules it ain't –"

"No fuck this," she slid from the stool and zipped up her jumpsuit. "I'm goin for a walk."

She pushed past him rougher than she usually would have, but he just pissed her off to the max. She left him stuttering as she stomped out into the desert, fiddling with her cigarette pack in her anger. He didn't want her around? Fine, after this walk she would be going the fuck home. She regretted calling him Dad. Julia looked over her shoulder, at the old gas station, and then grit her teeth, beginning her stomping manner again. She knew it was childish to act this way, but dammit she just wanted to stay one more day. She had this feeling that he was hiding something from her, but what could he be hiding? She was the only skeleton in his closet she knew of, and it wasn't like he was a super secretive guy, except to total strangers and that was totally reasonable of course.

Julia paused in the shadow of a tall red clay pillar, lighting her cigarette and then stuffing the Zippo and pack back into her left pocket of her jumpsuit. She pulled the cigarette from her lips and looked around at the landscape for a moment, wandering why she hadn't seen any wildlife yet. It was the desert, there should be something running around her? A lizard, a coyote, a fucking jack rabbit? Her brow furrowed and she leaned back against the pillar, cigarette balanced gently between her fingers so to not squish the tobacco around too much.

To be honest…Julia didn't want to leave because she wanted to find the source of that voice she had heard on the radio the other day. Sure she was a little bothered by the fact that someone was watching her, a man most of all, but she was mostly curious as to why. If they were solid creepers wouldn't they have just continued to watch her, or come at her directly when she was defenseless and in her towel? Yeah, so who the hell were they? Of course she would get weird calls through a radio out in the middle of nowhere. Now to who the calls were coming from…that was a juicy little adventure for her. She hadn't been out here in the desert since she was a little girl, and she barely remembered those days. Everything had grown and expanded, it all looked even bigger than it did then, and Julia loved exploring. You could say she was still a little kid at heart.

"_Name?"_

Julia screamed and pushed away from the rock, running a few feet before she turned around and noticed whoever had just spoken to her was now lying face first in the dirt, groaning around red sand. Julia dropped her cigarette and lifted a shaky hand to hold over her chest, her breathing rapid, and she swallowed heavily. She reached down for the bowler hat that had rolled to her feet and held it close to her chest.

"Y-You were the one through the radio the other day…" she muttered, crouching down beside their head.

He had stopped moving, and if Julia didn't know any better she would have thought he was dead. He didn't look up to her words, just laid there, and after a moment Julia reached down and began poking the side of his head. If there was one thing Julia was good at, it was annoying people. True, she shouldn't be annoying a stranger that had talked to her through the radio and had now been following her, but she figured what the hell, she _had_ come to find him and here he was.

"Hello? Are you alive?"

His left hand darted up and snatched away the bowler hat. Julia screamed and fell back onto her rump, scrambling back as he jumped to his feet and pressed the bowler hat down on his head. There was a bandana tied around his face, leaving only his eyes to be seen out of his facial features. They were strange looking, the darkest eyes Julia had ever seen, but something was off about him. He stared at her a moment longer before he scrambled back up the rocks, disappearing over the slope. Julia grit her teeth and jumped to her feet, following up behind him.

"Like hell I'm gonna just let you get away!"

She slipped and scraped her way behind him. He moved so easily around the rocks, Julia was slightly amazed, but more than anything she was angry. First her father tells her to leave, and then this bastard is gonna catch her interest and disappear? Oh hell no. But then again, was this what her father was worried about? He finding this mysterious person? Maybe she should stop, think a few moves ahead and decided if this was a good idea or not. Maybe she should wander why there was just some random man in the desert, moving so agile against the crumbling rocks, why he had known she was beside that radio, why he had contacted her through it. But of course she doesn't, Julia has never thought ahead of any plans she had made, and like hell that was going to start now.

And then she went tumbling down.

Julia screamed and scrambled, her fingers digging into the crumbling ground as her boot slipped and gravity tried to take her down the now thirty foot drop. A tear came from the corner of her eyes and she almost closed them, but she didn't, and kept scrabbling for a hold. Anything, to stop her from falling. Bad idea, it was all a bad idea, and now she was gonna die.

Or not.

Julia paused in her whimpering enough to notice she wasn't falling anymore, and that someone was holding onto her wrist. She looked up, jaw slightly slack, and watched the bandana slip away from a set jaw. Her large eyes widened impossibly further, and Julia now understood why he had run from her.


	4. Chapter 4

"H-Holy shit," Julia stuttered, still dangling from the cliff edge.

He closed his eyes for a moment and then almost let her drop, but she reached up as fast as she could and dug her long nails into his jumpsuit. If he tried to let her go, he was going down with her, and Julia seriously doubted he would make the fall even if he was…_whatever_ the hell he was. A mutant? That looked like what he was, what else would he be? He grunted as he tried to keep Julia's weight up along with his without going down. But guess what? It didn't work. And you wanna know why? Because a fucking _hand_ came out of the rock wall. Rough fingers wrapped around her ankle and tried to pull her in through the opening but she screamed and started kicking.

"Please! Please let me go!"

A sick laugh came from the wall, immediately sending a trill up Julia's spine. She felt the tears flowing down her cheeks, but she couldn't sob. She couldn't even breathe after locking eyes with the mutant holding her up. He looked hesitant. He didn't know whether to drop her or pull her up. _Are you fuckin kidding me? _Julia grit her teeth and swallowed her fear, digging those fingers of her into his arm. She tried to hoist herself up like that, but the grip on her ankle was a force to be reckoned with. The laugh was still making her spine prickle but she wasn't going to just let them take her wherever they had planned to. She quickly pulled her hand from his arm and latched her nails into the rock wall. She managed to get her leg bent enough to drive her knee where she knew someone's face would be. Julia grinned in sick satisfaction as a howl came through the air and then scrambled up the wall as their grip was gone from her leg.

She pushed the mutant back and landed on her hands and knees, eyes closed as she panted into the hot rocks. When she heard shuffling in the rocks her head shot up, eyes set to a glare through the sweaty curtain of her hair. She hurried to her feet and pretty much tackled the mutant to the ground, forcing him to land on his stomach while she straddled his lower back, her hands planted flat against his shoulder blades.

"You son-of-a-bitch, you were gonna let me fall," Julia panted, closing her eyes again. She was so tired. "What the hell is your name?"

He waited a long time before he answered, and when he did it was a simply mumble. "Goggle."

She stared at the back of his head for a moment longer and then she gave out a tired huff, lying down across his back, arms dangling into the sand. "My name is Julia…now I'm going to sleep."

"Y-You're on ma back."

She grimaced but didn't try to get up. "You almost got me killed…I'm going to sleep."

* * *

Julia rolled under the sun warmed blanket, the sunlight bathing over her shining through her thin lids. She reached up and covered her eyes as she sat up, stretching her arms around above her head before she pulled the blanket off of her. She slid out of bed and looked out the window, seeing the red sand twisting through the wind. Her brow furrowed and then she shrugged, walking to the door and opening it.

"Hey Jeb! You wouldn't believe this fucking dream I had," she called.

But she was met with silence. And that was when Julia took in her surroundings. She was most definitely _not _in the gas station. Jeb was not in the other room cooking lunch, there was not rattling air conditioner or the constant smell of oil and gasoline. She was on the second floor of a dusty house, an old house by the looks of things. The wallpaper along the small balcony she was on was an old-styled floral pattern and was peeling along the ceiling jam. Julia was beginning to panic a little bit. She looked around for a moment, hands coming up to her chest like a frightened child, and she started down the stairs to her left.

Everything was covered in dust downstairs as well. Old pictures were scattered along the walls and the tables in what could only be the living room. Julia swallowed the lump in her throat and then looked to her right, hearing a door squeaking shut, or open. She locked eyes with a young woman, maybe a few years older than her. She was standing in front of a swinging kitchen door, two plates of some type of meat in both of her hands. She wore a simple camisole nightdress, long raven hair tied up in a messy bun atop her head. She was riddled with scars and looked like she had been through a fire because of the burn marks up her arms and legs.

"Oh um…hmm," the woman unfroze, bright green eyes looking down before she smiled. "You Julia?"

Julia nodded hesitantly, terrified. "Um…yeah, and you are?"

"Oh right," the young woman looked to her left, down a short hallway. "Lizard! Come get this shit!" Julia heard a grunt come from some room and then she caught the young woman's smile. "My name is Veronica, call me Val though. Oh, and don't freak out."

"Wha-"

Julia's words were cut off as a…man (?) stepped out from under the stairs. He was spindly and tall, his eyes a piercing blue and his hair wild, the color gray. He had a twisted cleft than ran up to his cheek bone and his jaw was crooked, the teeth jumbled into an upside down V on his upper jaw, following behind the cleft. His eyes ran over Julia and he grunted, taking the plates from Val's hands. The young woman reached out and clasped on his shoulder for a moment before he shrugged her off and disappeared behind the stairs again.

Julia finally closed her mouth, helping the dryness from her lips. "What the…what was that?"

Val smiled a little. "Figured that…that's Lizard, my husband."

"Husband," Julia asked in disbelief.

Val nodded and crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, we got married last year. But enough about that, Goggle said you attacked him."

Julia narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, he was going to drop me over the edge of a cliff."

Val's lips popped into an O. "So you're the one Lizard was trying to catch!"

A sick feeling shot through Julia's stomach. "What?"

"Lizard went out huntin' yesterday and said he almost caught someone on the cliffs near the mines, must have been y- holy shit!"

Julia crumpled to the floor, holding her head in her hands as she groaned. "Jeb was right," she mumbled.

Val crouched down beside Julia, running her fingers across her forehead. "Holy shit, are you ok?"

Julia shook her head. "No…no I'm not. Jeb told me I needed to leave, I almost got killed by your husband and now…now I feel like I'm gonna be sick."

Val chuckled. "Honey, the worst hasn't even happened yet."


	5. Chapter 5

_**I swore I wasn't going to post up a lone Authors Note chapter but this is more important than anything.**_

_**SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Acts) is looking to ban any fan based information on the internet. Deviantart, FanFiction, Wattpad, fan made videos – EVERYTHING – is going to be wiped clean. If you are a part of these communities you can be potentially fined or even sent to PRISON for using copyrighted material in your stories or art (meaning everything, seeing as the characters in our stories are copyrighted by their respected companies).**_

_**This isn't just for the U.S., this is for the entire world. In order to sign this petition it's not very hard. You must create an account though, but that is still not hard. Please guys, you have to help us, and you since you all enjoy these stories as much as we do.**_

_**FanFiction boosted my confidence because of all of this praise I received and I am on my way to actually publishing my own book! Don't let them take away this precious activity for any of us and SIGN THIS PETITION. All you have to do is click a button.**_

_**If the link I give does not work go to **_u/2341566/RaisingHeartExelion, _**the official link is in her profile and I will be adding it to my profile as well.**_

_**LINK: **_ .gov/petition/stop-sopa-2014/q0Vkk0Zr

_**PLEASE HELP US SAVE FANFICTION! RISE UP! PLEASE POST THIS WHERE YOU CAN, IT MEANS THE WORLD.**_


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